KIDNEY CANCER
CRYOTHERAPY
The Benefits of Kidney
Cryotherapy
The benefits of renal
cancer ablation via cryotherapy are many.
Recovery from minimally invasive surgery is often
much easier for the patient. The procedure itself
is shorter and therefore complications are reduced,
including a lower risk of bleeding. Healthy kidney
tissue is not disturbed, allowing for maximum
retention of kidney function. Multiple small tumors
can be treated in one cryosurgical treatment.
Image guidance and real-time temperature monitoring
usually allow for complete tumor ablation in a
single session, but the procedure can be repeated
with minimal trauma to the patient if residual
tumor is found.
Minimally Invasive Procedure
An advantage of kidney
cryoablation is that cryosurgery (freezing)
can be performed laparoscopically (with small
incisions) or percutaneously (directly through
the skin), thus making it a minimally invasive
procedure for the treatment of kidney cancer.
The minimally invasive nature of the procedure
means that it can be performed with minimal blood
loss and without a large incision. After surgery,
a minimally invasive approach translates into
significantly less pain, a shorter hospital stay,
and more rapid recovery when compared with open
surgery.
Being minimally invasive, cryoablation
allows kidney cancer to be treated with much less
disruption of patients’ lives. Patients usually
are able to return to family, work, and routine
activity in less than half the time that it takes
to recover from open surgery.
Shorter Procedure with Fewer Complications
Patients who undergo ablation have less risk of some complications, such as bleeding. Clearly, any time the kidney undergoes surgery, there is a chance of excessive bleeding. However, the risk of excessive bleeding is decreased by not having to cut into the kidney as is typically done with partial or radical nephrectomy. Similarly, not cutting into the kidney minimizes the risk of disrupting the kidney’s collection system (the “plumbing” within the kidney which transports urine), which is a complication known as “urine leak.”
Should general anesthesia be necessary
for the cryosurgical
ablation, a shorter procedure also means less
time under its effects. This lessens the chance
of the patient suffering from any of the complications
related to undergoing general anesthesia.
Preservation of Normal Kidney Tissue
Kidney
cancer treatment that allows for the maintenance
of adequate renal function is of the utmost importance
to the patient’s ongoing quality of life. Because
only the cancer is destroyed during cryoablation
therapy and normal kidney tissue is spared,
remaining renal function is maximized. This means
that the kidneys can continue to perform their
many jobs more efficiently than if the entire
kidney, or a significant part of it, had been
removed.
In addition, sparing a portion of the
affected kidney creates more options if a new
tumor develops in the patient's second kidney,
a risk confronting a small number of people with
kidney
cancer.
Cryoablation is Repeatable
In most cases, image-guided
targeted ablation and real time temperature
monitoring assure that only one session of cryotherapy
ablation is necessary. Should the patient’s cancer
recur, or if residual tumor is found on follow-up
visits, renal cryosurgery can be repeated at the
physician’s discretion with minimal trauma to
the patient.
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